A proposal sure to jar with some would see Australia, which missed its medal target by more than half in a demoralising six days on the track, follow cycling superpower Great Britain which openly priorities Olympic success and considers anything else a bonus.

Team GB's strategy - aided by a state lottery-sourced budget of roughly $50 million across British cycling in the past four years – has created a behemoth on wheels. 

Every member of Britain's track cycling team that competed in Rio will leave with a medal. 

The contrast to lowly Australia, which led all-comers on the track at the Athens Olympics 12 years ago but has fallen off the cliff since, could not be more stark. The events at the track unfolded before the eyes of Cycling Australia CEO Nick Green, who was chef de mission for Australia at the last Games but is in Rio as a national head of a sport that receives top-level government funding dispersed by the Australian Sports Commission.   

 Australia's contentious Winning Edge funding model, introduced after the London Games, rewards sports financially for medals at world championships. But Australian cycling is finding this emphasis is not helping in Olympic years; with Cycling Australia high performance boss Kevin Tabotta highlighting this as a factor in a poor Rio return.

"It may take us to actually take a step back and really take a thrust into an Olympic Games from a couple of years out," he said.

"Now that's going to take some understanding from funders, and also from athletes because there's an expectation now in Australia to perform every time we line up at a world championship.

"We need to master an August peak and we haven't nailed that yet."

Australia projected it would win at least five medals on the track in Rio – and up to seven from road, track and BMX combined - but left the velodrome with two. One a silver, courtesy of a reigning world champion men's team pursuit squad that had legitimate reason to think it could do better because it won the world title in the event just five months ago. The other, a bronze, won by Anna Meares who, to date, is the only Australian cyclist to win an individual event in Rio.

Meares was the only Australian cyclist in any discipline to win a medal in Beijing in 2008. Things improved in London, in 2012, when Australia left the velodrome with five medals but - like it has at the past three Olympics - did not take a cracker from four road cycling events.

Medals Australia was counting on in Rio that went missing included Rohan Dennis in the road time trial, the women's track team pursuit outfit and Annette Edmondson in track's omnium. World-class talent, Dennis was the leader on the road in his individual event when he broke a handlebar and had to change bikes. He finished fifth. 

The women's team pursuit squad – world record-holders last year – literally fell from grace in Brazil. A training crash on the eve of competition saw key member Mel Hoskins hospitalised and three of her teammates also hit the deck, but after a decent qualification ride a usually slick outfit was resoundingly outclassed and finished fifth.

Edmondson, the only member of that squad that did not crash, was a strong gold medal chance in the omnium. She was a dual world champion at the 2015 world titles, in the team pursuit and in the multi-disciplined six-part event.

Omnium bronze medallist in the last Olympics, Edmondson was well placed to win a medal again in Rio – ranked fourth and within touch of the top three before the final points race discipline on Wednesday. However she missed a crucial break early in the 100-lap event to be one of the Australian cycling team's biggest disappointments here with an eighth place in a pet event.

Australia's fastest man on wheels, Matt Glaetzer, won Commonwealth Games gold in the keirin and claimed a hugely promising silver in the individual sprint at the March world titles this year. In Rio, however, he finished fourth in the solo sprint, fourth in the team sprint with Pat Constable and 10th in the keirin.

Australia is counting on at least two medals from the BMX competition that began on Thursday through two world champion winner headline acts, Sam Willoughby and Caroline Buchanan.

Cycling Australia is not counting on a medal from the mountain bike competition.

At a third consecutive Olympics the British were so dominant it became a contentious talking point among rival coaches and riders, but Team GB's boss responded to this with a simple assessment: "If you look at some of the times that have been done here, some of the teams simply haven't shown up," Iain Dyer said.